Minoru Yasui – Challenged Japanese Internment during WW2, (1916-1986)

A year after President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 calling for curfews and internment camps for Japanese-American citizens, attorney Minoru Yasui decided to test its constitutionality by deliberately breaking the curfew.  He was arrested, sentenced to nine months in solitary confinement, and sent to an internment camp for the remainder of the war.  Upon his release in 1944, he moved to Denver, resumed his law practice, and became involved in civic affairs.  He was a founding member of Denver’s Urban League, and for ten years served as director of the city’s Human Rights Commission.  Due largely to his efforts, Denver was able to avoid the race riots that plagued other cities during the Civil Rights Era of the 1960s.  The Minoru Yasui Community Service Award, granted annually to outstanding volunteers, was named in his honor.  After his death, his wartime arrest record was dismissed by the 9^th Circuit Court of Appeals.  He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Barack Obama in 2015.

Ruth Cave Flowers – African American Educator, (1902-1980)

Raised by her grandmother in Cripple Creek, Ruth Cave moved to Boulder to attend high school.  Because she was black, however, Boulder High refused to give her a diploma.  Later, at CU, she faced even more discrimination.  Unable to find employment in Boulder after university, she headed for South Carolina to teach college-level French and Latin.  She later returned to CU to earn a Masters in French and Education, and then moved to Washington DC to study law. There she met and married Harold Flowers, with whom she had a son.  The marriage lasted four years.  Despite the upheavals, Ruth continued her studies, earning a PhD in Foreign Languages at Washington’s Catholic University before returning to Boulder in 1959 to head the Department of Foreign Languages at Fairview High School.  She became the first African American to teach in the Boulder Valley School District. Fifty years after her graduation, Boulder High finally saw fit to grant her the diploma.

Rodolfo Corky Gonzales: Boxer, Poet, Political Activist (1928-2005)

 

Activist Rodolfo “Corky” Gonzales was born in Denver where he graduated from Manual High School at age 16.  After three years as an amateur boxer, Gonzales turned pro and was rated the number three featherweight in the world.  Mayor Thom Currigan appointed him “Director of Denver Neighborhood Youth Corps,” a position from which he was later fired for being a “troublemaker,” a moniker which Gonzales was proud to claim as his own.  His epic poem, “Yo Soy Joaquin,” published by Bantam Books in 1967, became the rallying cry for the Crusade for Justice, a Chicano social movement he founded in 1965. A branch library on West Colfax Avenue in Denver was named in his honor.

Tsianina Redfeather – Native American Opera Singer, (1882-1985)

At fourteen, Tsianina Redfeather came to Denver to study music.  Her singing caught the attention of pianist and composer Charles Wakefield Cadman, who in 1908 invited her to join him on a tour in which he would speak about – and she would sing – Native American songs.  She collaborated with him on an opera entitled Shanewis the Robin Woman, based on her tales of native life.  The work debuted at the Met in 1918 and was an instant sensation.  Cadman wrote two pieces that became her signature songs: From the Land of Sky Blue Waters, and Indian Love Call.  Her renditions so moved a Ft. Collins real estate developer, that he and his partners named a village and some area lakes “Redfeather” in her honor.  During WW1, Tsianina formed a group of Native performers to entertain the troops, garnering praise from General John J. Pershing for her artistry and courage.  She retired in 1935 to become an activist on Indian affairs and lived to age 103.

Mariano Medina – First Permanent Settler in the Big Thompson Valley, (1821-1878)

Trapper Mariano Medina arrived in the Big Thompson Valley in 1858.  He decided to stay and establish a permanent settlement on ground that would later become the town of Loveland.  He recruited friends from Taos to help him build log cabins around a central plaza, plus an adobe structure to serve as the area’s first general store and saloon.  After an Indian attack in which sixty of his horses were stolen, Medina built a small stone fortress with gun ports that enabled defenders to shoot in all directions.  He built a toll bridge over the Big Thompson to earn extra cash, and charged travelers $1.00 each to cross.  An educated man, Medina could speak Spanish, French, English and several native dialects.  He married a native woman named Tacosney who made buckskin clothing to sell in the family store.  In 1868, a post office was established and the settlement was renamed Namaqua.  It remained occupied until the 1920s.

Dr. Portia McKnight Lubchenco – Eastern Plains Obstetrician, (1887-1978)

When, in 1907, a Russian agronomist named Alexis Lubchenco visited her family’s South Carolina plantation to learn about raising cotton, he urged Portia to ignore her parents and study medicine.  She took his advice, becoming the first female ever to graduate from North Carolina State Medical School.  She married Lubchenco, and together they moved to Russia, where she learned the language, gave birth to three children, and became a respected obstetrician.  After the Russian Revolution, the Lubchencos returned to South Carolina where Portia continued her medical practice and Alexis started a cotton plantation that ultimately failed due to a boll weevil infestation. They moved to Colorado at the prompting of Portia’s brother and settled in Sterling. She began traveling throughout Northeastern Colorado, delivering babies and caring for their mothers.  She helped renovate and modernize Good Samaritan Hospital in Sterling, and eventually became its first Chief of Staff.  In 1954, she was named Colorado Mother of the Year, and in 1962 she received the Colorado Medical Society Award.

Luis Jr Martinez – Chicano Activist, Aztlan Dancer, (1952-1973)

Luis Jr Martinez grew up in a barrio in West Denver.  He was a member of the Crusade for Justice, the Chicano liberation movement founded in 1966 by Corky Gonzales.  In addition, he helped found the Denver chapter of a militant faction of Chicano activists known as the “Black Berets.  Martinez was an accomplished dancer who founded the Baile de Chicano de Aztlan as a means of reintroducing Mexican culture to Hispanics north of the border.  When, in early 1973, the American Indian Movement occupied Wounded Knee, Martinez helped organize solidarity protests in Denver.  As a result, the Crusade came under FBI scrutiny, which in turn led to a police raid on Crusade headquarters.  Martinez was killed in the ensuing shootout.  After his death, his brothers founded El Centro LUIS (Latinos United in International Solidarity) which expanded the movement’s focus to encompass Hispanic and native struggles worldwide.

Portia Mansfield – Co-founder Perry-Mansfield Performing Arts School and Camp, (1887-1979)

The idea for a fine arts camp first struck Portia Mansfield and Charlotte Perry on a hunting trip they took with Charlotte’s father into the mountains northwest of Denver.  With $200 saved from teaching dance, they bought five acres near Steamboat Springs, built some cabins, and in 1914 opened their doors.  Unlike other arts camps, theirs offered hiking, swimming, camping, tennis, and horseback riding along with an extensive arts curriculum.  Actors Dustin Hoffman, Lee Remick, and Julie Harris studied there.  Composer John Cage and choreographer Agnes de Mille were but two of its illustrious faculty.  After nearly 50 years, the women donated the facility to Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri. They received the Colorado Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts in the early 1970s.  In 2004, Portia Mansfield was inducted into the Colorado Women’s Hall of Fame.

Lowell Thomas – Broadcast Journalist, (1892-1981)

Lowell Thomas grew up in Victor, Colorado. After earning both his BA and MA at Denver University, he hired on as a reporter for the Chicago Journal.  In Europe covering WW1, he learned of British plans to foment an uprising in Palestine to oust the Ottoman Turks.  He traveled to Jerusalem where he met T.E. Lawrence, and followed him into the desert to cover the conflict.  His reportage turned Lawrence into a household name.  By 1930, Thomas was delivering the nightly news on CBS radio, which he would continue to do for the next forty years.  His sign-off line, “So long, until tomorrow,” became a national catch phrase.  He went on to produce a popular series of travel documentaries for CBS Television called “High Adventure with Lowell Thomas.”  In 1945, he received the Alfred I. DuPont prize for Excellence in Broadcasting, and in 1976, Gerald Ford awarded him the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

“Poker” Alice Tubbs‒ Gambler, Brothel Madame (1851-1930)

A more unlikely poker player and brothel keeper you would not find than Alice Ivers.  Born in England and raised in Virginia, she attended an elite boarding school before moving with her family to Leadville.  There she met and married mining engineer Frank Duffield, an avid poker player who introduced her to the game.  To support herself after his death, Alice began playing poker, exploiting her good looks and fancy costume to distract her opponents.  A respectable woman, she never played on Sundays, preferring to spend the day reading her Bible and smoking cigars. She moved to Deadwood, South Dakota in 1890, where she met and married dealer and house painter Warren G. Tubbs.  They bought a ranch near Sturgis, where they raised seven children.  After Tubbs’ death, Alice opened a saloon and brothel she called “Poker’s Palace.”  Her Motto? “Praise the lord and place your bets.  I’ll take your money with no regrets.”